I feel like people would have been debating walks in the same way 15-20 years ago when people were realizing that getting on base is important. I think everyone was taken by surprise when people started throwing around numbers like 20 and 30 runs above replacement-level for top framers. It didn't feel right, until you looked closer and wondered why you hadn't really thought about it before.
Walks weren't seen as being valuable until they were. Neither was framing. I guess the only difference is that the framing skill has the potential to cease being relevant with the arrival of roboumps, or at least until guys like Kratz are in the majors and guys like Navarro aren't.